This is a randomized study to compare the diagnostic accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided sampling of pancreatic solid lesions obtained with the 22-gauge Franseen (EUS-fine needle biopsy) vs the 22-gauge standard needle (EUS-fine needle aspiration) without rapid onsite evaluation (ROSE), since, in most endoscopy units around the world ROSE is not routinely available.

To investigate the accuracy of EUS-guided sampling of pancreatic solid lesions obtained between two different needles without ROSE.

Patients with a solid pancreatic were included. Patients were biopsied in a randomized order. The primary endpoint was the diagnostic sensitivity for pancreatic malignancy (PM). Secondary outcomes were adequacy of the sample, the mean tissue area, the mean tumor area, and the adverse event rate.

The final diagnosis was pancreatic adenocarcinoma in 38 (76%), neuroendocrine tumor in 4 (8%), chronic pancreatitis in 3 (6%) patients. The sensitivity for PM with Franseen needle was 0.91 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.80-0.98], vs 0.8 (95%CI: 0.67-0.91) (P = 0.025) with standard needle. The specificity for PM did not differentiate. The accuracy of the standard needle for PM was 0.80 (95%CI: 0.66-0.90), and the Franseen group was 0.90 (95%CI: 0.78-0.97) (P = 0.074). The technical success rates for the standard and Franseen needle groups were 94% (95%CI: 0.83-0.99) and 100% (95%CI: 0.92-1.00), respectively. The mean total tissue area in mm2 (SD) was greater in the Franseen group, 2.07 (0.22) vs 1.16 (0.17) (P < 0.01). The mean tumor area in mm2 (SD) was not different in Franseen group vs standard group, 0.42 (0.09) vs 0.47 (0.09) (P = 0.80). There were no adverse events.

The sensitivity for PM and mean total tissue area, was greater in the as compared with standard needle. The mean tumor area did not differ between the groups.

To assess the utility of signal intensity ratio (SIR) in distinguishing between mass-forming chronic pancreatitis (MFCP) and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), thereby reducing unnecessary pancreatectomies or delayed diagnosis brought by misdiagnosis.

This retrospective study included 170 participants (34 with MFCP and 136 with PDAC) who underwent radical pancreatic surgery and were diagnosed via specimen pathology. The study group was carefully selected with a 1:4 ratio matching for sex, age, and operation time between two entities. T1 SIR, T2 SIR, arterial phase (AP) SIR, portal venous phase (VP) SIR, delay phase (DP) SIR, DWI0-50 SIR, and DWI500-1000 SIR, were calculated by dividing the signal intensity of lesions by that of the paraspinal muscle, serving as a reference organ. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was estimated to evaluate the intraobserver and interobserver reliability. Wilcoxon tests were employed for univariate analysis, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to determine optimal cutoff points and AUC values for selected predictors. A tenfold cross-validation method was applied to validate the robustness of the results.

The ICC demonstrated excellent correlation for both intraobserver and interobserver(ICCs > 0.8). T1 SIR, AP SIR, VP SIR, and DP SIR were significantly lower in the PDAC group compared to the MFCP group, and exhibited good independent predictive properties with the sensitivities of 61.8, 61.8, 70.6, and 73.5%, specificities of 66.2, 68.4, 59.6, and 55.9%, and AUCs of 0.620, 0.659, 0.670, and 0.668, respectively, hovering around 0.7. The tenfold cross-validation confirmed the reliability and robustness of our findings, with consistent AUC, sensitivity, specificity, and 95% confidence intervals over 1000 iterations.

T1 SIR, AP SIR, VP SIR, and DP SIR show promise as potential imaging biomarkers for distinguishing between MFCP and PDAC.

Endoscopic ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) is an important diagnostic tool for suspected parenchymal lesions in the gastrointestinal tract and adjacent organs. Our study aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of EUS-FNA in focal liver lesions (FLLs).

Data from 88 patients diagnosed with FLLs by imaging who underwent EUS-FNA from 1 January 2017 to 31 August 2022 were reviewed in our retrospective study at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University and Ruijin Hospital of the School of Medicine of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The EUS-FNA biopsy results were compared with the final diagnosis to evaluate diagnostic value. The relevant factors were analysed to determine their influence on EUS-FNA biopsy results.

The 88 patients analysed in this study resulted in a final diagnosis of 86 malignant and two benign cases. The overall diagnostic accuracy of EUS-FNA in FLLs was 93.18 % (82/88; 95 % Confidence Interval [CI], 87.9-98.5), with a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of 93.02 % (80/86; 95 %CI, 87.6-98.4), 100 % (2/2; 95 %CI, 100-100), 100 % (80/80; 95 %CI, 100-100), and 25 % (2/8; 95 %CI, -5-55.0), respectively. The parameters related to lesion and procedure were not significantly different between these two groups (p > 0.05). The number of puncture needles in the groups showed a statistically significant difference between multiple and single punctures (p = 0.001).

Our data revealed that EUS-FNA is a safe and reliable diagnostic method for FLLs that shows high accuracy.

Cytopathologists are at the forefront of specimen acquisition during many different procedures while providing rapid on site evaluation (ROSE). This has added pressure to cytopathologists as more and more ancillary testing is being requested on smaller amounts of tissue. By focusing on the most common organ sites: lung, head and neck, and pancreas, there is a discussion of what the cytopathologist needs to know to triage tissue successfully. Finally, there is a discussion of the logistical aspects of integrating small biopsies into everyday practice.

This work aimed to explore the utility of CT radiomics with machine learning for distinguishing the pancreatic lesions prone to non-diagnostic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA).

498 patients with pancreatic EUS-FNA were retrospectively reviewed [Development cohort: 147 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC); Validation cohort: 37 PDAC]. Pancreatic lesions not PDAC were also tested exploratively. Radiomics extracted from contrast-enhanced CT was integrated with deep neural networks (DNN) after dimension reduction. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA) were performed for model evaluation. And, the explainability of the DNN model was analyzed by integrated gradients.

The DNN model was effective in distinguishing PDAC lesions prone to non-diagnostic EUS-FNA (Development cohort: AUC = 0.821, 95% CI: 0.742-0.900; Validation cohort: AUC = 0.745, 95% CI: 0.534-0.956). In all cohorts, the DNN model showed better utility than the logistic model based on traditional lesion characteristics with NRI >0 (p < 0.05). And, the DNN model had net benefits of 21.6% at the risk threshold of 0.60 in the validation cohort. As for the model explainability, gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) features contributed the most averagely and the first-order features were the most important in the sum attribution.

The CT radiomics-based DNN model can be a useful auxiliary tool for distinguishing the pancreatic lesions prone to nondiagnostic EUS-FNA and provide alerts for endoscopists preoperatively to reduce unnecessary EUS-FNA.

This is the first investigation into the utility of CT radiomics-based machine learning in avoiding non-diagnostic EUS-FNA for patients with pancreatic masses and providing potential pre-operative assistance for endoscopists.

To determine the accuracy of qualitative and quantitative MRI features for the diagnosis of pathologic regional lymph nodes at standard lymphadenectomy in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

All adult patients with pancreatic MRI performed from 2011 to 2021 within 3 months of a pancreaticoduodenectomy were eligible for inclusion in this single-center retrospective cohort study. Regional nodes at standard lymphadenectomy were independently reviewed by two fellowship-trained abdominal radiologists for the following qualitative features: heterogeneous T2 signal, round shape, indistinct margin, peri-nodal fat stranding, and restricted diffusion greater than the spleen. Quantitative characteristics including primary tumor size, largest node short- and long-axes length, number of regional nodes, absolute apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values, and ADC node-to-spleen signal index were assessed. Analysis was at the patient-level with surgical pathology as the reference standard.

Of 75 patients, 85% (64/75) were positive for regional nodal disease on histopathology. None of the qualitative variables evaluated on MRI was associated with pathologic nodes. Median primary tumor maximum diameter was slightly larger for patients with pathologic nodes compared to those without (18 mm (10-42 mm) vs 16 mm (9-22 mm), p = 0.027). None of the other quantitative features was associated with pathologic nodes. Radiologist opinion was not associated with pathologic nodes (p = 0.520). Interobserver agreement was fair (kappa = 0.257).

Lymph node morphologic features and radiologist opinion using MRI are of limited value for diagnosing PDAC regional nodal disease. Improved diagnostic techniques are needed given the prognostic implications of pathologic lymph nodes in these patients.

• Multiple lymph node morphologic features routinely assessed on MRI for malignancies elsewhere in the body are likely not applicable when assessing for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma nodal disease. • Interobserver agreement for the presence or absence of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma lymph node morphologic features on MRI is fair (kappa = 0.257). • Many more lymph nodes are resected at PDAC standard lymphadenectomy than are detectable on MRI, median 25 vs 5 (p < 0.001), suggesting improved diagnostic techniques are needed to identify PDAC nodal disease.

To develop CT-based radiomics models for distinguishing between resectable PDAC and mass-forming pancreatitis (MFP) and to provide a non-invasive tool for cases of equivocal imaging findings with EUS-FNA needed.

A total of 201 patients with resectable PDAC and 54 patients with MFP were included. Development cohort: patients without preoperative EUS-FNA (175 PDAC cases, 38 MFP cases); validation cohort: patients with EUS-FNA (26 PDAC cases, 16 MFP cases). Two radiomic signatures (LASSOscore, PCAscore) were developed based on the LASSO model and principal component analysis. LASSOCli and PCACli prediction models were established by combining clinical features with CT radiomic features. ROC analysis and decision curve analysis (DCA) were performed to evaluate the utility of the model versus EUS-FNA in the validation cohort.

In the validation cohort, the radiomic signatures (LASSOscore, PCAscore) were both effective in distinguishing between resectable PDAC and MFP (AUC_LASSO = 0.743, 95% CI: 0.590-0.896; AUC_PCA = 0.788, 95% CI: 0.639-0.938) and improved the diagnostic accuracy of the baseline onlyCli model (AUC_onlyCli = 0.760, 95% CI: 0.614-0.960) after combination with variables including age, CA19-9, and the double-duct sign (AUC_PCACli = 0.880, 95% CI: 0.776-0.983; AUC_LASSOCli = 0.825, 95% CI: 0.694-0.955). The PCACli model showed comparable performance to FNA (AUC_FNA = 0.810, 95% CI: 0.685-0.935). In DCA, the net benefit of the PCACli model was superior to that of EUS-FNA, avoiding biopsies in 70 per 1000 patients at a risk threshold of 35%.

The PCACli model showed comparable performance with EUS-FNA in discriminating resectable PDAC from MFP.

Background. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and fine-needle aspiration (FNA) are commonly used for assessing pancreatic lesions. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic yield and accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) in a single tertiary institution. Methods. Consecutive patients who underwent EUS-FNA of the pancreas at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, from January 2015 to March 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Endoscopic findings and FNA results were analysed. For patients who subsequently underwent surgical resection of pancreatic lesion, EUS-FNA diagnoses were compared to histopathological findings of surgical specimens to determine its diagnostic accuracy. Results. One hundred twelve EUS-FNA were performed in 99 patients within the study time period and were included for analysis. Sixty-six (66.7%) pancreatic lesions were solid in nature and 33 (33.3%) were cystic. The overall diagnostic yield of EUS-FNA was 70.5% (n = 79). On multivariate analysis, more passes of needle were associated with a higher diagnostic yield (odds ratio = 2.000, P = .049). 57.1% (n = 64) of EUS-FNA results had an impact on management. Sixteen patients with diagnostic EUS-FNA subsequently underwent surgery for resection of the pancreatic lesion. Upon correlation to the histopathological findings of surgical specimens, there were 12 true-positive, 2 true-negative, 0 false-positive, and 2 false-negative cases. Sensitivity was 85.7%, specificity was 100%, positive predictive value was 100%, and negative predictive value was 50%. The diagnostic accuracy of EUS-FNA was 87.5%. Conclusion. EUS-FNA is accurate and reliable for diagnosing pancreatic lesions.

Background and study aims  Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) improved the diagnostic performance and upgraded the role of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) into an interventional modality, able to guide patient management and treatment.This review aimed to highlight the advances, emerging practices, procedural techniques and technological innovations in EUS tissue acquisition in pancreatic diseases. Methods  A thorough review of the literature was performed using PubMed to identify articles that describe techniques, advances, and practices in EUS tissue acquisition in gastrointestinal diseases. Conclusion  Since the first EUS-FNA procedure, EUS guided-tissue acquisition has been evolving continuously. Development of needles with innovative tip design enabled procurement of larger samples with preserved histological architecture. Moreover, sampling techniques and complementary methods, such as contrast harmonic imaging and EUS-elastography, have been introduced in an effort to improve diagnostic performance and sample adequacy.

The diagnostic yield of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) cytology widely varies depending on the treatment method used. Liquid-based cytology (LBC) has gained popularity in the gynecological field because of its efficacy in collection of target cells and simplicity in the manipulation of specimens. Since the introduction of EUS-FNA at our institution, we have used LBC for the diagnosis of pancreatic mass lesions. This study aims to investigate the diagnostic efficacy of EUS-FNA with LBC in patients with pancreatic mass lesions during the learning curve for EUS-FNA.

In this study, we retrospectively enrolled 222 patients with pancreatic mass lesions who were diagnosed using EUS-FNA with LBC between 2011 and 2016. The diagnostic yields for EUS-FNA with LBC for pancreatic mass lesions were evaluated.

The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for malignancy were found to be 93.9%, 95.1%, and 94.1%, respectively.

This study suggests that EUS-FNA with LBC for specimens provides good diagnostic efficacy in patients with pancreatic mass lesions even during the learning curve for EUS-FNA.